Press Release

Ruprecht von Kaufmann (*1974 in Munich, Germany) is a well known German artist who studied illustration and painting at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. He lived and worked in Los Angeles and New York. Since 2003 Ruprecht von Kaufmann is based in Berlin. His works are part of several notable collections, such as the Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany or the Hort Family Collection.

Human nature is the central theme of von Kaufmann's paintings. His figures look indecisive. They are anti-heroes who are struggling with and for their existence. This struggle finds it’s formal expression in the tension between figuration and abstraction. Von Kaufmann makes the transformation of paint tangible, as his figures take shape and at the same time dissolve into lumps of paint. His works often combine real and surreal elements. In our presentation at Volta New York we are showing oil-paintings on colored linoleum, that are characteristic for von Kaufmanns signature style. With different tools the artist creates three-dimensional structures and marks on the surface of the linoleum.The individual features of his figures are often blurred and distorted. The German artist’s works are not actually portraits of existing people. He rather assembles faces. Lacing memories with invention he molds paint into archetypes or representatives of a whole group. So instead of portraits of an individual, von Kaufmann is interested in recreating the traces that encounters with other people leave in our minds. Encounters that are always shaped by interpretation as well as perception.

Ruprecht von Kaufmann has been teaching at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin, the University of Applied Science in Hamburg, and as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig. From January 21 to April 2, 2018 the Kunsthalle Erfurt is hosting a large solo exhibition with around 120 works from the last 15 years.